Month: November 2016

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3 in fact; white vinegar, peroxide, and baking soda.They have more uses than you can imagine, but this post is specifically what I use them for.

Baking Soda and White Vinegar are like the perfect marriage. They have wonderful uses on their own, but they make magic together.

How I use baking soda alone:

Sprinkle in the cat litter box. It keeps your litter more fresh through the week until it’s time to change it and helps eliminate odors and combat moisture.

Sprinkle on carpet in cat room before vaccuming. This one is sort of controversial, because how much is your vaccum REALLY getting out of your carpet? The truth is not much. But since we are not able to own our home, we also can’t change our flooring. Again the baking soda helps with eliminating odors from pet dander and oils seeping into your carpets.

Baking soda with water for hair. Shh! trade secret. Baking Soda with water mixed into a paste can help remove product buildup from hair. 3 years ago, I did a segment on going “Poo-free.” While it works for many people, my hair started reacting the same as it does to normal products. My hair gets used to a particular product and starts looking dingy and oily, so I have to change brands often. But the truth is, no matter what product you are using, you get buildup from the parabens and sulfates. And to be honest, I’ve tried many brands boasting they don’t have those ingretients and I noticed no difference. Baking soda and water can be used in the shower periodically to strip the buildup. Use a good conditioner on the ends of your hair after for protection as it will pull oils and moisture from your hair also.

Baking soda for mosquito bites. Really. Again with that water mixture to make a paste. Instantly stops itching from spider or mosquito bites. This is awesome for your kids and safe.

White Vinegar alone:

White vinegar is known as a household cleaning product that is safe for your house and pets. Mix with water in a spray bottle and you have a spot on cleaner. However, it is not a disinfectant and should not be treated as such. It does however do well combating dirt and grime.

White vinegar to wash your fruit and vegetables. Mixing water and vinegar and allowing your apples, grapes, cucumbers, ect. to sit for 10 minutes or so can help remove the layer of wax and film from them. Again it’s not an antibacterial and will not do any better than water at removing bacteria, but it can pull off that extra layer you may not really want to eat. A ratio of 3 parts water to 1 part vinegar should do.

White vinegar and baking soda together:

Clean your pet’s food and water bowls. Vinegar and baking soda are safe for pets, though don’t taste very good, so make sure you rinse thoroughly after. Allowing a mixture of baking soda and vinegar with water to sit in food bowls or the tank of automatic waterers (non electronic) will help get that nasty film off that is left behind.

Laundry. When we have a particularly stubborn stain or whites are looking dingy, baking soda, vinegar, and water seem to brighten things right up.

Carpet stains. Again with the vinegar, baking soda, and water. Others have mentioned vinegar also works well with borax, cornstarch, or salt, but as I typically don’t use those other things, I don’t have them sitting around. We sometimes put vinegar in our carpet cleaner with water and it does pretty well.

Hydrogen Peroxide – 3%:

We havent forgotten about you Peroxide! Peroxide has antimicrobial properties, but can also be a bleaching agent at high concentrations, and is not recommended for household cleaning. Consult your doctor before using on open wounds.

An Oral debriding agent. Actually this is listed on the bottle. Mix equal parts water and peroxide and start swishing. Rinse out, as peroxide is not to be ingested.

Ear cleaning. Finally! A safe way to clean ears. Contrary to popular belief, candling is NOT safe for your ears according to the Mayo Clinic. You can actually build up a lot of bacteria in your ears. I have allergies and I get insanely itchy ears. I’ve tried drops and I get treated for allergies by injections and an antihistimine. However, it does not help my itchy ears. Peroxide is the first safe method that provides relief. I usually either place a warm towel around the bottle for a few minutes or under the heated blanket to warm it before placing in ear. If it’s too cold, you’ll feel dizzy for a minute. I usually let it sit in ear for about 10 minutes each site. According to the American Hearing Research Foundation, you can use oil in your ear to soften earwax first for earwax removal prior to inserting peroxide.

Minor cuts and scrapes. Hydrogen peroxide is a antimicrobial and will help kill off bacteria. There is some controversy about this however, as it is said to also kill healthy cells in open wounds. I actually find peroxide helpful though for cleaning pores on areas of the body which tend to collect moisture and bacteria due to apocrine sweat glands. This may sound weird, but I have a skin condition called Hidradenitis Suppurativa which effects the apocrine glands. This is my own personal opinion that peroxide in these areas actually helps keep down risks of infection. I do not however use peroxide in any open wounds from said condition. There is not any research currently to support this as there is still relatively a lot unknown about HS despite increased research efforts.